RE: More demons of ignorance, arrogance, and darkness

How terrible, Jim!  My Aunt Loraine had an NBC and called us every year when
bloom was imminent.  The fragrance of her 6-10 blooms was very powerful.  It
was a real family event.  I can't begin to imagine the fragrance from 200
blooms!  Truly the man was possessed by a demon of ignorance and darkness.
I mourn the NBC's loss with you.

Bonnie (SW OH - zone 5) 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf
Of james singer
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 3:32 PM
To: Garden Chat
Subject: [CHAT] More demons of ignorance, arrogance, and darkness

Last evening I got an e-mail from a reporter in the Venice bureau of the
Sarasota Herald. She found me via "Dave's Garden." She wanted to know if she
could quote something I'd written on DG about night blooming cereus. Then
she asked me if I was aware of what had happened to one of 80-year-old night
blooming cereus plants in an older neighborhood on Venice island. I said I
wasn't.

Turns out that a woman, Ms. Ruth, now in her 80s, "planted" night blooming
cereus on two palm trees [Phoenix canariensis] in the median in front of her
house in the mid-1940s. I don't know which genus of NBC they are--they're an
epiphyte and their vegetative body is cylindrical, about the diameter of a
hot dog but in much longer stems. For the last 30 or so years, the annual
blooming of these two plants has been occasion for a block party; many
neighbors gathered in Ms. Ruth's front courtyard at sundown and waited until
the cacti flowers open.

Last year, the reporter told me, the assembled neighbors counted more than
200 blooms. It must have been beyond glorious.

About a week ago, a young city park's department employee cut the NBC off
one of the palms before he could be stopped. "I was told to clean up street
trees," he said. "And I thought this one was ugly." Here are two pictures I
took this AM; one is of the remaining "ugly" tree, the other is of the
beautified tree. If you know anything about pruning P. 
canariensis, you'll find the beautified tree looks like it was trimmed by
Freddy Krueger.

http://snipurl.com/pnxg

Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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